excavation – Page 2 – Archaeology of College Hill Excavations

Hospitality tents, slavery memorial, and Quiet Green excavations?

As part of Brown’s 250th celebrations, a new memorial to recognize the university’s connection to (and benefits from) the transatlantic slave trade will be dedicated this Saturday, September 27th. The memorial’s location on the Quiet Green – only a few yards from the house of the first president and our excavations – serves as a reminder of the ways in which the history of the university still carries weight in our daily lives. Although one of our primary research questions involves the search for remains of the first President’s House, we’re also interested in questions of all people impacting or impacted by the spaces of the Quiet Green. This new monument, and the 250th celebrations as a whole, inspire our team to dig deeper (figuratively, and literally) into the material remains of Brown’s past. You may notice our regular fencing has been removed for the weekend, to make way for preparations for the 250th celebrations and monument dedication. Fear not! You can still stop by and check out our early progress behind the yellow safety ropes.

For more information about the events of this weekend, check out the Fall Celebration Schedule.

Excavations are underway!

By JIAAW

On September 15, 2014

In Site Diary

We’ve already started excavations for the 2014 field season on the Quiet Green. After shooting in our new trenches last week, the fences are up and we started digging on Monday afternoon. Our 2014 students were enjoying the sunny September weather, and made a good start clearing the turf and topsoil. Early finds include lost pennies and lost dorm keys – perhaps if we return them now, we can get the $30 replacement fee back for some poor student?

Excavations 2014 are coming!

By JIAAW

On August 22, 2014

In Site Diary

The College Hill team is excited to get started with excavations for the Fall 2014 term. We’ll be digging again on the Quiet Green this year, exposing more of a path uncovered in 2013 and hoping to find further traces of the house of the first presidents of Brown University. Last year our excavations recovered Staffordshire slipware pottery embedded in this path, dating to the mid-18th century and possibly associated with the Presidents House.

Week 6 – Excavations

By JIAAW

On November 6, 2013

In Site Diary

Today was our last day excavating, and it was difficult to motivate ourselves considering it was so cold and, thanks to the Daylight Savings Time shift, sunset had been moved to the middle of our class time. Our phones told us it was only forty degrees Fahrenheit when we started the afternoon, and by the time we left it was probably at freezing—everyone was ready to call it a day.

Chelsea organizes the finds for both trenches

Week 5 – Excavations

By JIAAW

On November 1, 2013

In Site Diary

This past Monday was an exciting day of digging for The Archaeology of College Hill! We had an extended session, and luckily the weather was warm.

Bags of ceramic and recording sheets for QG3

Week 4 – Excavations

By JIAAW

On October 23, 2013

In Site Diary

Quiet Green Trench 3 (QG3)

This week in QG3, we worked in two contexts. In context 5, we used handpicks to excavate quickly. Context 5 was a light orange, clayey soil. For the most part, it was wet and clumpy, which made it slightly difficult to sift, but didn’t present any other significant problems. We encountered context 6 later in the day. Context 6 was a darker soil that formed a circular deposit on the western edge of the trench. We fully excavated the area, which returned to context 5 when context 6 was completely removed.

Week 3 – Excavations

By JIAAW

On October 8, 2013

In Site Diary

Our excavation on October 7th reinforced patterns from last excavation day, as Trench 3 continued to produce more numerous finds while Trench 4 provided more variety in contexts. We were also able to begin to use the total station for the first time to measure more exactly our context elevations and points in both trenches. A total station is a piece of equipment that measures coordinates and distances.